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The Unexpected Pest
'The Unexpected Pest ' is a 1956 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Robert McKimson. Plot Sylvester's owner, John, is fed up with his laziness. John's wife, Marsha, says they only got the cat to keep away mice, and there hasn't been a mouse around in months. Sylvester desperately looks for a mouse to catch to prove his worth. When he has no luck finding a mouse in the house, he goes outside and finds a little mouse, who agrees to the same mouse that Sylvester will catch over and over again, only because he wants to be roughed up in front of his master. It doesn't take the mouse long to realize that Sylvester really does need him alive, and he decides to stop being his fool. As a result, Sylvester pays the price for using the mouse for selfish reasons by constantly trying to prevent the mouse from causing trouble breaking the dishes, or trying to harm himself by jumping off the shelf, attempting to get himself eaten by Sylvester, grabbing cheese off a mousetrap, dropping a clothes iron on himself, sitting on a lit TNT stick. Sylvester saves the mouse from each situation, but when he throws the dynamite out the front door, he doesn't realize John is outside. Sylvester is thrown out of the house and battered and beaten. The mouse fakes suicide by pretending to jump of the bridge of a river, and Sylvester, having fed up with the pesky mouse, says "And good riddance too!" Once Sylvester leaves, the mouse climbs back on the bridge, and says "After all he's been through, I thought he deserved a happy ending". Availability *DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4, Disc 4 Censorship On ABC's The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show, the scene of Sylvester trying to save the mouse from attempting suicide by having a clothes iron fall on his head, only for Sylvester to get hit instead was cut.The Censored Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Page: U-Z http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-u-z.aspx Notes * From this to "Barbary-Coast Bunny", all the cartoons have the 1954-55 ending card. After, "Rocket-bye Baby", the red card would only appear on "Half-Fare Hare". * The names Marsha and John are a reference to the 1951 Stan Freberg song "John and Marsha". "Wild Wife", "Punch Trunk", and "Unnatural History" also reference this record. Gallery The Unexpected Pest - Sylvester and John.png The Unexpected Pest - Cat, Mouse and Marsha.png TV Title Cards lt tbbats the unexpected pest.jpg|''The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show'' References Category:Cartoons directed by Robert McKimson Category:Sylvester Cartoons Category:1956 Category:Shorts Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts Category:Cartoons written by Warren Foster Category:Cartoons animated by Keith Darling Category:Cartoons animated by Ted Bonnicksen Category:Cartoons animated by George Grandpré Category:Cartoons animated by Russ Dyson Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Cartoons with layouts by Robert Gribbroek Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Richard H. Thomas Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by June Foray Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer